Mixing Coal and Solar To Produce Cheaper Energy 198
Al writes "It might not please many environmentalists, but a major energy company is adding solar-thermal power to a coal plant and says this could be the cost-effective way to produce energy while lowering CO2 emissions. Abengoa Solar and Xcel Energy, Colorado's largest electrical utility, have begun modifying the coal plant, which is based near Grand Junction, Colorado. Under the design, parabolic troughs will be used to preheat water that will be fed into the coal plant's boilers, where coal is burned to turn the water into steam. Cost savings comes from using existing turbines and generators and from operating at higher efficiencies, since the turbines and generators in solar-thermal plants are normally optimized to run at the lower temperatures generated by parabolic mirrors."
Re:Glad to see the "coalar" tag (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Glad to see the "coalar" tag (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Glad to see the "coalar" tag (Score:2, Funny)
Re:who would object? (Score:4, Funny)
Well that depends. Wyoming residents are pretty divided on the issue.
On one side you've got the Rancher mentality, the people who would love nothing more than to wipe from the face of the earth every native species that competes with/preys on their cattle or someone else's cattle. Strangely enough I work with a couple, at the department of environmental quality.
These people have no problem lopping the tops off the land, be it stripmining, hills, or even the mountains.
On the other side you've got the NOLSies, comprised of NOLS students (who tend not to bathe), rock/ice climbers, and nature enthusiasts.
These people object to any sort of sullying of wyoming's natural landscape, usually because some friend of a friend did a study and found natural gas rigs cause a 2% decline in field mice populations.
Yeah, not much to do around here so people get pissy about the environment, either for or against it...
Re:Glad to see the "coalar" tag (Score:4, Funny)